Saturday, 30 November 2013

Had a phone call from Phil this morning asking me did I fancy a trip to the Forest of Dean to look for the two barred crossbills, unfortunately I had made plans for the day so was unable to go. As we normally do when we haven't seen each other for a while we always have a good natter about what we've been up to and the conversation got on to Phil's appointment for his hearing aids, I said to him "how long have you been waiting for them?" to which he replied "about a year or two", I immediately started pissing myself laughing as did Phil when he realized what he had said one of his best puns ever and it was by accident I suppose you had to be there but it certainly gave Phil and me a good laugh, anyone for Namibia?

Thursday, 28 November 2013

I had been
planning the trip with my family for nearly 18 months.The time had arrived and we got up very early
for our three and half hour trip to Gatwick airport and as usual it was pitch
dark and raining. The first sign of any birdlife was at the service station at
Cobden which took the form of a Robin singing, Carrion Crow, Black headed Gull,
Pied Wagtail or car park Wag and Wood Pigeon.We made good time to the airport and found the airport devoid of
birdlife.After the nine hour flight we
arrived shattered but were soon on the way to the hotel the Ramada Gateway in
Kissimmee and the light was starting to fade. But birds started appear and the
first bird to make the list was Turkey Vulture followed by Boat Tailed Grackle
and lots of Great Egret. Best of all was an Osprey trying to catch a fish in a
small road side pool.On getting to the
Hotel we choose a room in the tower part of the hotel and had a good field of
view over the area and Disney in the distant. Scanning around I spotted a small
Warbler in a tree below and it was very plain with a yellow rump and it pumped
its tail constantly. Later I found out it was my first of many Palm Warblers.

First morning
in a foreign country is always great and I had one hour spare as everybody was
still fast sleep.So I walked around the
grounds of the hotel when the light was just starting to appear. There were
lots of birds calling and some flying high overhead.The first bird of the morning was Northern
Mockingbird and has I walked birds came thick and fast.2 Northern Cardinal,3 Palm Warblers, 1 House Wren, 2Eastern Bluebirds, 1 Belted Kingfisher, House
Sparrow, American Crow, 1 Loggerhead Shrike, 2 Mottled duck, 1 Little Blue Heron,
1 Coopers Hawk, Black Vulture, TurkeyVulture, 1 Wood Stork, 1 Blue Gray Gnatcatcher. The Hotel had trees all
around the edge and waste ground behind that and at the back there were two
small lakes. One was bare and the other had a reed beds, this one proved better
and also behind this was a wood. This site was handy for me and most of the
birds I saw on that first day I saw daily.I walked the grounds on five different days and these are
the birds I found, Blue Jay, Great Blue Heron, 1 Pied billed Grebe found every
day, Red Bellied Woodpecker, Common Grackle, 1 Northern Parula one day only,
Yellow Rumped Warbler, Ruby Crowned Kinglet, Red Shoulder Hawk, Mourning Dove,
Eastern Phoebe, Great White Egret, White Ibis, on one day only flying over 6
Glossy Ibis, and Double Crested Cormorant.

Was the only
Disney site with American Coot and Moorhen, Double Crested Cormorant, White
Ibis, Anhinga, Mottled Duck, Mallard Duck, Red Shouldered Hawk, and House
Sparrow.

SEA WORLD

Was a great
place for Wood Storks and Snowy Egrets. There was also lots of White Ibis,
Great Egrets, Double Crested Cormorant, Anhinga, Blue Jay, American Crow,
Northern Cardinal, Gray Catbird, House Sparrow, Palm Warbler, Carolina Wren,
both Vultures, Osprey, Red Shouldered Hawk, Bald Eagle seen from water park,
Mourning Dove, also on the way in on a small lake was a 1 Black Bellied
Whistling Duck. This was the only bird of the trip. I also had a Sun
Conure.I do not know if it was feral or
escaped from Sea World.

UNIVERSAL
STUDIOS

Was very
quiet as well, 2 Pied Billed Grebes, House Sparrow, American Crow, Palm
Warbler, Mallard, Feral Pigeon, Great Egret flying over and Double Crested
Cormorant.

BUSCH
GARDENS TAMPA

Was good for
Laughing Gull there were about thirty there. Also Cattle Egret looking for
scraps around the food tables. Also Great Egret, White Ibis, Small Blue Heron,
Tri Coloured Heron, Moorhen, Boat Tailed Grackle, Collard Dove, House Sparrow,
also Monk Parakeet nests seen but no birds were seen anywhere, Osprey, Black
Vulture, Red Shouldered Hawk. On days where I had more time I would cross the
192 highway by my hotel and would go down a road called Reedy Creek Blvd. This
area was pretty good and the following were observed Loggerhead Shrike,
Northern Cardinal, Northern Mockingbird, Blue Jay, American Crow, Tufted
Titmouse, Gray Catbird, House Wren, Carolina Wren, Marsh Wren, Eastern Phoebe,
Pine Warbler, Palm Warbler, Black White Warbler, Yellow Throated Warbler,
Yellow Rumped Warbler, Common Yellowthroat, Blue Gray Gnatcatcher, Eastern
Bluebird, Ruby Crowned Kinglet, White Eyed Vireo, Red Bellied Woodpecker, Downy
Woodpecker, Mourning Dove, Common Ground Dove, Boat Tailed Grackle, Common
Grackle, Red Winged Blackbird, Savannah Sparrow, Song Sparrow, 2 House Finch
were seen on one occasion, Great Horned Owl, 1 Whip Poor Will was seen on one
evening visit, Barn Swallow, Red Shoulder Hawk, American Kestrel, both
Vultures, Turkey, Carolina Duck, White Ibis, Great Egret, Sandhill Crane, Wood
Stork, Wilson Snipe.

I also
booked two days out with a Birding Pal, which worked out very well. My birding
pal was called Mrs Jenny Walsh and on my first day out with her we had a good
start which was 12 Roseate Spoonbill feeding in a drainage ditch. What a great
start to the day and then it was onto a new park called Twin Oaks Conservation
Area, it’s an old cattle ranch and it’s found on the side of Lake
Tohopekaliga.It was a great site but
when you look across the lake it was being disturbed by Airboat Tours every
twenty minutes and birds were flying everywhere. There was a small wader scrape
and there was 42 Least Sandpiper and 12 Greater Yellowlegs, 7 Lesser
Yellowlegs, 2 Killdeer, also seen at this site were 30 Palm Warblers, Common
Yellowthroat, Blue Gray Gnatcatcher, 20 Eastern Meadowlark, Savannah Sparrow,
Eastern Phoebe, Red Bellied Woodpecker, House Wren, Ground Dove, Northern
Cardinal, Blue Jay.This site was also
good for Bald Eagle with four seen at the same time and one found sitting in a
tree giving crippling views.Also other
birds of prey seen were Red Tailed Hawk, Red Shouldered Hawk, 1 American Kestrel,
1 male Snail Kite, 1 pair Northern Harriers, both Vultures. A Great Horned Owl
was found roosting in a large Oak and give great views.Also around the lake there were Sandhill
Cranes in the fields and a large flock of about hundred American Coots,
Moorhen, also 6 Pied Billed Grebe, Anhinga, Limpkin, Tricolored Heron, Green
Heron, Great Blue Heron, Great Egret, Cattle Egret, Snowy Egret, White Ibis.
Next stop was a street where Great Horned Owl nest every year and after a ten
minute search my second Great Horned Owl of the day was found and after that we
went to an electric substation to see a colony of Monk Parakeet nesting in the
substation. The next stop was a wood nearby which was called Lake Runnymede
Conservation area.This turned out to be
pretty good with 6 Black and White Warbler, Palm Warbler, 2 Yellow Throated
Warbler, 3 Ruby Crown Kinglet, 2 White Eyed Vireo, Blue Gray Gnatcatcher, Gray
Catbird, 10 Tufted Titmouse, Downy Woodpecker, Red Bellied Woodpecker, Carolina
Wren. We finished off at St Cloud Lakefront Park which is on the east of Lake
Tohopekaliga which was good for Limpkin where six were seen, also one more
Snail Kite and a lot of Muscovy Ducks which I think must have been feral or
domestic.Also there were two very tame
Sandhill Cranes which were begging for food.The next
time I met Jenny Walsh we went to Shingle Creek Regional Park first which was
quiet at first, then it picked up with highlights being Pileated Woodpecker on
a telegraph pole drumming away which I first thought was a guy on a roof
because it was so loud. Other birds seenat the wood were Red Bellied Woodpecker, Palm Warbler, Pine Warbler,
Blue Gray Gnatcatcher, Tufted Titmouse, Northern Mockingbird, Blue Jay,
American Crow, Gray Catbird, Eastern Phoebe, Osprey, both Vultures, Wood Stork,
White Ibis and Small Blue Heron. There were lots of Tree Swallows passing
overhead also a Belted Kingfisher. Best bird seen however was a roosting Barred
Owl along the boardwalk in a swamp area. Our next area to visit I did not find
out what it was called. There were lots of ranches and a local resident stopped
us to ask what we were doing.Birds seen
in this area were 1 Crested Caracara, 3 Red Shouldered Hawk, American Kestrel,
Loggerhead Shrike, 2 Eastern Bluebirds, Mottled Duck. Our next stop was back to
East lake Tohopekaliga to finish off.A
small wood there had 1 Black and White Warbler, 1 Ruby Crown Kinglet, 1 Bald
Eagle, 3 Sandhill Cranes, Pied Billed Grebe and also a fly over male Northern
Harrier.

The last day
arrived and we travelled to Orlando international airport for our flight home.
Birds flying to roost nearby were 10 Wood Stork, 15 Great Egret, 10 White Ibis,
3 Mottled Ducks and then it was back to the cold and rain.

Sunday, 24 November 2013

Martin Bevan and myself set out quite late for us today ( 6 o'clock ) to drive down to St. Brides to try and connect with the Western Orphean Warbler which has now hung around for over a week.
Arriving at the car park at 8pm we found it to be quite full already. Outside the gate we spoke to Mark Hipkin who was helping with the marshalling duties again and he told us that the bird had been seen, that 40 birders were in the garden and a queue was forming for the next batch of birders to be allowed in.
We joined the queue and probably waited about an hour before we had the signal to enter the garden. Lots of birds were present mostly Blue Tits, Great Tits, Blackbirds and Chaffinches so the binoculars were kept busy ( Yes Mr Bell I did remember to take them ). Finally after 20 minutes the Orphean appeared and gave us some stonking views feeding on the apples or perched out in the open. A cracking little bird.
It was also nice to have a chat with Pauline Hogg from Leeds who we met on 2 occasions on the Bilbao ferry. Rob were your ears burning? We did agree that Pauline's jokes were of a much higher standard than yours.
We then went up to Dale airfield where we bumped into Pauline again with her two travelling companions where between us we found some Lapland Buntings definitely six possibly double figures, we just could not get them on the floor.
It was then down onto the Gann where we found the reported Great Northern Diver and a Cormorant give us a good laugh by catching a quite big flatfish which it had great difficulty getting down it's neck, in fact I'm not absolutely sure it did.
Last call was Marloes Mere which contained really good numbers of wildfowl, lapwings and another great bird to finish a Ringtail Hen Harrier.

Thursday, 21 November 2013

At Garwnant this morning at 10:00 hours using the south clearfell. Just west of bend in track on closest dead pole but flighty and flew west before I could get close. Not much else about except raven playing in the wind.

Tuesday, 19 November 2013

I've been worked off my feet since returning from holidays and have had little time for galavanting around the country. What time I have had I've dedicated to searching for two-barred crossbills around what we've got left of our commercial forestry, = 0 and just 2 common crossbills in total. Anyway had a great grey shrike this afternoon at 16:05 hours at Lower Neuadd, distant, dark and crap even for a record shot. Very little at Garw Nant but winter wildfowl numbers increasing at Rhaslas (17/11/13); pochard[8], wigeon[20], tufted[29].

Monday, 18 November 2013

Can't compete with Bustards and fancy warblers but managed a few hours birding over the weekend starting with a visit to Bowling Green Marsh on Friday afternoon, there were good numbers of teal,wigeon,little egrets,redshank,blk tailed godwits,curlew,lapwing, two stock dove and the highlight a female long tailed duck,from the viewing platform there were at least 200 avocet, 3 grey plover and 100's of dunlin,.the rspb have erected new viewing screens just past the railway bridge and from here i counted 100+ brent geese at Darts farm. I agreed to go shopping with the wife saturday so no birding today but did manage a fulmar,raven and a blk necked grebe from the hotel balcony in Babbacombe and later in Torquay two blk necked grebes and a red admiral on the wing. Sunday we travelled to Broadsands which was really quiet producing just another blk necked grebe,two g.c.grebes,three heron,and singles of goldcrest and chiffchaff in the trees near the carpark, next port of call was Dawlish i had a quick scan of the sea from Langstone Rock but apart from two common scoter and two brents it was quiet so yomped over to the estuary which was full of birds. There were at least 300 brents,1,000 dunlin ,500 wigeon, 250 teal, 100+ curlew, 6 r.b.merganser,the resident slav grebe and the adult bonaparte's gull off warren point, although divers had been reported from Dawlish and Broadsands i failed dismally to connect with any of them. After an uneventful drive home i checked the Devon bird blog while enjoying a cuppa and almost choked when i saw a Dusky Thrush had been reported from a private garden in Brixham but after composing myself i noticed the bird had been seen earlier in the month and that the powers that be decided not to put the news out fearing a mega twitch and upsetting the locals.

Sunday, 17 November 2013

a week after returning from Fuerteventura with Phil and Mike and I've had two British ticks this week!

First up, on Tuesday at work, I turned round to talk to my boss only to see a Hummingbird Hawkmoth outside the window - the number of times of gone looking for this moth and failed......

Then yesterday, after coaching took the drive down to Dale in Pemb's to twich the Western Orphean Warb that has been hanging around for a week. Despite the fact it was only the third for the UK (that can be assigned to this taxon) there was a grand total of 10 birders on site. The WOW showed on and off for the next hour or so.

On returning home yesterday evening, my neighbours handed me a package that had been delivered. uncertainty over what it was soon turned to delight as I opened the pages of the new BTO Atlas - WOW, a massive volume that will take hours (weeks) to digest.